1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a receipt printer that has a paper cutting position downstream from the printing position, prints specific content that is part of the next receipt after finishing printing the print data for one receipt, and then cuts the paper. The invention also relates to a method of controlling the receipt printer, and to a recording medium.
2. Related Art
Receipt printers that have a printhead and a paper cutter disposed with a cutter margin on the downstream side of the printhead, print specific previously stored logo data triggered by receiving a cut command after finishing printing the received print data, and then cut the paper are known from the literature. See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2007-047898.
By printing a length equal to the cutter margin in preparation for the next print job before cutting the paper in a printer that has such a cutter margin, creating a blank space (top margin) of a length equal to the cutter margin at the leading end of the next printout can be prevented. The top logo data is previously received and stored locally by the receipt printer. The top logo data is only sent to the printer when the print content of the top logo changes or when receipt printer memory has been cleared, and only print data not including the top logo data is transmitted during normal receipt printing.
Receipt printers may also be used to produce content other than simple sales receipts, including tax receipts, credit card transaction receipts, and coupons, as needed. Such irregular print jobs may have a header (top logo) with different content than a sales receipt, or no header. With the printer configuration described above, however, a process that overwrites the print data previously stored for printing a header must be performed before printing starts in order to change the header content or change whether or not a header is printed. In addition, because the print data must be overwritten whenever print data for printing a header is received, an unnecessary print data writing process is performed when print data for printing the same header is received.